Gorbachev says "exceptional" Thatcher helped end Cold War

MOSCOW, April 8 (Reuters) - Margaret Thatcher was "a greatpolitician and an exceptional person" who helped end the ColdWar, said Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the SovietUnion.

Thatcher, Britain's first woman prime minister, died of astroke on Monday.

"Thatcher was a politician whose word carried great weight,"Gorbachev, who sought to reform the Soviet Union and improvedits ties with the West but failed to avert the collapse of thenuclear-armed superpower, said on his website.

"Our first meeting in 1984 marked the beginning of arelationship that was at times difficult, not always smooth, butwas treated seriously and responsibly by both sides," Gorbachev,82, said.

After that meeting, months before Gorbachev succeededKonstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader following his death,Thatcher said of Gorbachev: "We can do business together".

Thatcher, an enemy of communism, said at the time that sheand Gorbachev each firmly believed in their respective nation'spolitical system and were never going to change one another.

But Gorbachev said on Monday that his relationship withThatcher helped bring change and tear down the Iron Curtain.

"We gradually developed personal relations that becameincreasingly friendly," he said. "In the end, we were able toachieve mutual understanding, and this contributed to a changein the atmosphere between our country and the West and to theend of the Cold War."

"Margaret Thatcher was a great politician and an exceptionalperson. She will be remain in our memories and in history," saidGorbachev, whose resignation as president December 1991 markedthe end of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev's reputation may be as mixed as Thatcher's, if notmore so. He is reviled by many Russians who blame him for theSoviet collapse, but some see his efforts to reform the countryand ease oppression as heroic and he a well respected figureoutside his homeland.